| Public Health Meaningful Use: Oregon's Approach |
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| Meeting the Public Health Meaningful Use Requirements / Submitting HL7 Messages to ALERT IIS |
| In 2009, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Congress authorized more than $25 billion to support the adoption, and meaningful use, of electronic health records (EHRs). Incentive payments are available for certain eligible health care providers and hospitals from Medicaid or Medicare related to adopting an Electronic Health Record System (EHR). Providers and hospitals must adopt a certified EHR, and demonstrate that they are using their EHR in a meaningful way. To demonstrate this, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have established "meaningful use" criteria, which include a set of 15 required ("core") objectives that must be met by providers to receive these incentives, along with ten "menu" objectives, of which five must be met. Meaningful Use objectives are being implemented in three stages, starting with Stage 1 objectives in 2011-2012. |
| In Stage 1, providers and hospitals are required to meet at least one Public Health objective from the menu set of Meaningful Use objectives. These include electronic submission of immunization data, reportable laboratory results, or syndromic surveillance data to the Public Health Division. |
If you are looking for information on meeting the Meaningful Use requirement for reporting to an immunization registry, see below. For information on other public health measures, go to:
Public Health Meaningful Use objectives for Oregon |
| Immunization Reporting |
| It is likely that providers currently submitting immunization information to the ALERT IIS using an ONC certified system, HL7 version 2.3.1 messaging and CVX vocabulary standards may already be able to attest to meeting Meaningful Use requirements. |
| To meet requirements, an eligible professional/hospital must perform at least one test of the certified EHR technology’s capacity to submit electronic data to an immunization registry. On-going electronic submissions of data are strongly encouraged if the test is successful. |
| Successful data submissions to ALERT IIS (Oregon’s Immunization Information System) should be submitted from a certified EHR technology and should follow HL7 version 2.3.1/2.4 specifications, and should include CVX codes as the vocabulary standard. |
| Submissions using direct data entry, electronic transfer from billing systems, and electronic transfer in flat file format do not qualify for Meaningful Use. |
| Objective |
Ambulatory Measure |
Hospital Measure (ED&IP) |
Recommended Standards |
| Immunization Records |
≥1 test of submission to state immunization registry (ALERT IIS), with continued submission if successful |
≥1 test of submission to state immunization registry (ALERT IIS) with continued submission if successful |
Follows ALERT IIS HL7 v2.4 General Transfer Specifications Includes ALERT IIS-accepted CVX codes |
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| To assist Oregon providers with meeting the public health objectives under Meaningful Use, specifically Immunization Reporting, ALERT IIS has developed a tool that will allow entities to submit an HL7 message to a test environment within the ALERT IIS. Once Meaningful Use testing is completed, additional data quality assessments will be required before actively submitting immunization information directly into ALERT IIS. |
| Steps for Meaningful Use Testing |
- Visit www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms to review program requirements, provider eligibility guidelines, and to register for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.
- Review ALERT IIS HL7 General Transfer Specification
- Prepare a sample VXU message and send to ALERT using the testing portal below. Although this portal utilizes a secure connection, we recommend that entities use fictional data.
- ALERT IIS will then return a report, including the above information, date and time of submission, and pass/fail information. ALERT will validate that the test message meets all of the specifications and passed, based on the existing Meaningful Use criteria. ALERT will also maintain an audit trail with testing information. Users of the testing portal will receive a report with the results of their testing for attestation purposes.
- Once Meaningful Use testing is completed, ALERT Technical Staff will work with entities on a priority basis to set up ongoing data exchange. Please contact the ALERT Help Desk if you wish to discuss next steps.
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| Testing Form |
| Once you have completed the pre-test steps above, including registering for the CMS EHR Incentive Program and preparing a test message per ALERT IIS General Transfer Specifications, proceed to the Testing Form for submission of your sample message. |
| 2011 and Beyond |
| As new information about Stage 2 for Meaningful Use is released, we will communicate, through our website, on how Oregon ALERT will be able to support your efforts to meet year 2/Stage 2 requirements. |
| If you have additional questions, please contact our Help Desk at 1-800-980-9431 or alertiis@state.or.us |
| Links to more information: |
| Public Health Meaningful Use objectives for Oregon |
| Oregon Medicaid EHR Incentive Program |
| Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare EHR Incentive Program and Meaningful Use |
| Certified Health IT Product List maintained by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT |
| Oregon’s Health Information Exchange Initiative/HITOC |
